1
HKK 040/1
14 AUG 1978
Po. 31
CONFIDENTIAL
R:
RY
PA
Action Ten
ло
Mr Maturay
Mr Cortazzy
over:
leave
от
I shall be on
81%
16/17 Aug.
Could you please take this on
Study on the New Territories Lease
7
Samany ai/vii
I think we are agreed that we should pursue the problem of how to get round the problem presented by Crown Leases in Hong Kong as a special exercise. You were going to write
to me about the launching of a wider study which in effect would be to up-date the section of the 1976 Planning Paper on Hong Kong which dealt with the China aspect.
I discussed with Mr Samuel yesterday the proposal for handling the Leases set out in my letter to McLaren of 6 July. I quite understand that it is too early for the Office to have reached a view on this and appreciate that the legal aspects are far from easy. However, I am anxious to make progress and, subject to your views, I would like to have a meeting in the Office on either the 16th or 17th August immediately before my return to Hong Kong. I should hope that by then there would have been time to study the legal and political aspects of the proposal and for us to be able to reach a tentative view as to whether the proposal offers the best prospect of success, and,
what further work should be done on it.
if so,
I could make myself available either on the afternoon of the
16th or on the morning of the 17th, though I would have to leave for the airport quite shortly after 11.00 am.
Sir Murray MacLehose
20 July 1978
c.c.
Mr Quantrill
Mr Samuel
Mr Murray
CONFIDENTIAL